writing without a teacher

By Geoffrey Gevalt
YWP Editor

Here are a few ideas and tips to keep in mind while writing:

Noodle. What do you want to say? What do you want to write? What’s your opening line? Know those things before you begin; it’s like traveling with a road map.

Audience. You are not writing for the world; even on this blog. Pick one person you trust and love and respect. Imagine her; or him. Imagine that you are writing to that person, talking to that person. Forget about everyone else. Read more »

By Amanda Anderson

Travel -— whether to a far-off, exotic location or your grandparents’ house in Massachusetts -— is full of adventure, excitement and the unexpected. Travel writing is a way to record these experiences and craft a vivid memory. This is not just a series of journal entries recording every minute detail of your trip or a dry report of the exact events. Instead, try to capture a specific memory, event, or feeling from the trip and make it come alive. Your piece can take the form of a narrative, a guidebook, a poem or your own creation. Read more »

Excerpted and edited from a 2005 YWP article
By Newton Baker
Grade 4 teacher
Union Elementary School, Montpelier

• Carry a notebook or journal with you everywhere. Use it to capture important thoughts and observations.
• Develop the habit of writing daily.
• Good stories are based on real-life observation and detail, so use your notebook to record anything that interests you.

By Philip Baruth

If you like blogs — like reading them, sharing them, maybe writing them — then you and I have something fairly important in common, because the 21st century is rapidly separating the world into Those Who Blog and Those Who’d Really Rather Not. Read more »